Friday, September 4, 2015

INTERVIEW: Kim Fielding plus #Giveaway! #MMRomance

Hello Kim and welcome
back to the Hat Party! Thank you for joining us again! Grab a new hat and let's
get this party started!

Describe your muse to us!

I have a very clear picture of her. She looks like a cross
between Kathy Bates and Meryl Streep, and she tends to wear dominatrix-wear.
She carries a whip. She is cruel, uncompromising, demanding, and smart. I long
ago learned never to cross her.

If you could take a writing holiday, where would you go and
what project would you dedicate yourself to?

I love writing in hotels. I think I’d go somewhere like Paris
or Barcelona, where I could spend my writing breaks hanging out in cafés,
people-watching for inspiration. I’d work on either this sort of dark slave
story I’ve been dying to get to for months, or else the first book in an urban
fantasy series I have planned, based on trickster mythology.

What do you think exists at the heart of the universe?

Okay, I know zilch about astronomy or physics, so I shall
speak metaphorically. The heart of the universe is whatever is most precious to
you and whatever is most central to your life. Like family. Or chocolate. It
depends.

In Rattlesnake, my protagonist has never been loved and never
had a real home, so his universe has no heart—until he meets Shane.

Your life now hangs on winning a game of darts. Are you going
to die?

Probably. My eye-hand coordination sucks, so I am definitely
going to miss the target. However, I am devious, so I could maybe swing around,
throw the dart at my antagonist, and hit him somewhere painful enough to
distract him while I escape.

What do you think it means to be an author?

Well, it means you gotta write. And I’ll take it a step
farther—to be a real author, you also have to share your hard-won words with
someone. Doesn’t mean you have to land a huge publishing deal. You could
self-pub, post online, or hand your work over to your beloved. At its heart, I
think being an author means you’re communicating with someone.

What one word is most beautiful to your ears or eyes?

Sensuous. I love the look and sound of all those sinuous
esses, like snakes (Rattlesnakes?) slithering smoothly across sand. I know it
means “pertaining to the senses” and not “sexy”, yet it’s almost impossible to
say it without sounding a smidgeon salacious, isn’t it?

Tell us about a time you were brave.

Four years ago, I packed up my bags and my older
daughter’s—she was 11 then—and dragged her to Croatia to spend a semester with
me. I’d visited there before, but this was the first time I’d spent more than a
couple weeks abroad. It was also the first time I’d lived without another adult
in the house. Our apartment was in a building built in the 1880s, with the
enormous tile heaters original to the place (but converted from coal to gas).
We were on the 4th floor with no lift. I was homeschooling her. And
I don’t speak Croatian. I also had to spend most of 5 months apart from my
husband and younger daughter (they visited us for 2 weeks midway through our
stay). We dragged ourselves all over Europe by plane, train, boat, and car, and
we got to know Croatia very well. We had an amazing time. Life changing for us
both.

How have you changed as a writer since the first time you
visited The Hat Party?

Well, I’ve written several more books, so I’d like to think my
writing has continued to improve. I’ve ventured into some new genres,
historical and sci-fi. I guess mostly I’ve gained more confidence.

Because we all know there is one, what’s the dark side of
being a published author?

Honestly, this is tough for me to answer because I love being
an author. There are some tasks I wish I could skip—like writing synopses—but
none are truly loathsome. I guess the biggest downside is time, or more
accurately, my lack thereof. Not only does writing take many hours, but so do
editing, marketing, and so on. I usually have several projects going at once,
each at a different stage, so I’m always juggling. I have a demanding day job
too. Unfortunately, something’s got to give, and sometimes that something id my
family life. I’ve been known to hide from the husband and kids—or kick them out
of the house—so I could get work done.

And finally, when they send the first dachshund into space,
what will his/her awesome astronaut name be?

A drifter since his teens, Jimmy Dorsett has no home and no hope. What he does have is a duffel bag, a lot of stories, and a junker car. Then one cold desert night he picks up a hitchhiker and ends up with something more: a letter from a dying man to the son he hasn’t seen in years.

On a quest to deliver the letter, Jimmy travels to Rattlesnake, a small town nestled in the foothills of the California Sierras. The centerpiece of the town is the Rattlesnake Inn, where the bartender is handsome former cowboy Shane Little. Sparks fly, and when Jimmy’s car gives up the ghost, Shane gets him a job as handyman at the inn.

Both within the community of Rattlesnake and in Shane’s arms, Jimmy finds an unaccustomed peace. But it can’t be a lasting thing. The open road continues to call, and surely Shane—a strong, proud man with a painful past and a difficult present—deserves better than a lying vagabond who can’t stay put for long.

Excerpt:

Their waitress appeared beside the table. “Anything else?” she asked Jimmy.

He didn’t want to go just yet. But his belly was full, and any further conversation with Shane was probably going to frustrate him. Already Jimmy wanted to reach across the table and touch Shane’s hair, maybe run a finger across his scars. “Just the check. Thanks.”

“Mine too,” Shane said, but his thoughts were clearly elsewhere. As soon as she took their plates away, he leaned forward. “You don’t have to go, do you? I mean, you’re not, um, on the run from the law, are you?”

That made Jimmy laugh. “I’ve done some stupid shit, but never bad enough to make me a fugitive.”

“If I Google you, I won’t find you on the Ten Most Wanted list?”

“Afraid not.”

“So.” Shane traced his finger through a bit of spilled sugar on the tabletop, worrying at his lip and not meeting Jimmy’s gaze. He finally looked up again. “So you could stick around here for a while. If you had a place to stay and a job.”

*What inspired Rattlesnake?Travel! A couple separate trips, actually. One involved a road trip through the Mojave Desert, where I saw an older guy hitchhiking. And the other trip was to a former gold rush town in the Sierra foothills. So I have a drifter who picks up that hitchhiker, which eventually leads him to the little town of Rattlesnake.

*Is there anything special you’d like us to know about it?I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I have favorite children: characters I love especially much. Like Travis and Drew fromSpeechlessand William and Colby fromThe Tin Box. And now Jimmy and Shane. And the town itself is very real in my head. Recently we were on our way to Angels Camp, the town that inspired Rattlesnake. I was looking forward to breakfast at Mae’s Café. Until I remembered that Mae’s is fictional, existing only in Rattlesnake.

*What are your hopes for these titles?

My biggest hope is that readers will buy the book, of course, and that they’ll love Jimmy and Shane as much as I do. I hope my guys become real in a lot of people’s hearts.

About the author:

Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her husband, her two daughters, and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.

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Meet the Hostess!

Raine O'Tierney is an M/M romance author who loves celebrating other authors, asking probing questions about dachshunds, and generally supporting the creative process! Plus she thinks hats are worth throwing a party over!